Google has replaced its popular Google Keyword tool and Adwords Traffic Estimator with a Keyword Planner Tool. They have added a wizard like workflow process to guide users to find keywords for Ad groups and Ad campaigns. This integrated tool is a great way to do your Keyword research for SEO and other digital marketing strategies. Interested in the Keyword Planner , but don’t know how to go about using this exciting new tool? Help is at hand; read the 5 Steps that will help you use the Google Adword Keyword Planner correctly.

Step 1: Start Google Keyword Planner

Google requires you to sign up for a free Adwords account. Login to your account and then go to the Keyword Planner section in Tools and Analysis. Then get started with the Keyword Planner by clicking on, “Search for keyword and Ad Group ideas”. In the,”Product or service” box, type a keyword phrase of your choice and then click on “Get ideas”. Let’s consider the following example –

Weight loss

Weight loss diet

Weight loss program

Weight loss pills

Weight loss shakes

Start with a single keyword phrase “Weight loss”.

Step 2: Keyword ideas

The tool by default gives ideas for “Ad group ideas” by default and is not of any use. Therefore choose the “Keyword ideas” tab as this is the real useful keyword planner feature. The tool will show a big table with many terms. Let’s decode them.

Avg. monthly searches – Average number of searches for the exact month for the exact match keyword. It does not show phrase match volume

Avg. CPC – Average amount that a person is willing to pay for a click.

So the person only typed “weight loss” and not other keywords like “Weight loss diet”, “weight loss pills” etc. Therefore for SEO and Adwords campaigns, you need to find out the phrase match and patterns all by yourself and it is a huge task.

Location – this is an important feature of the tool where you can narrow down your search from “all locations” to country, state and city. This way you can get an idea about the searches occurring in a specific geographic location.

Remove unwanted keywords from the material – The tool gives many unwanted, irrelevant suggestions. To remedy this, use the Include/Exclude tab and type in the keyword again. This feature will remove all the garbage keywords from the list and show only relevant ones.

Step 3: Keyword comparison

You can also compare different keywords in this tool by listing all the keywords, separated by a comma in the top box provided.

This trick now helps us to see the exact phrase match search volume. Let’s focus on the main thing – Value. The higher the value in the CPC column (suggested bid) the closer is the keyword to transaction. “Weight loss” is just a keyword that some overweight/obese people are searching for, but “Weight loss program” shows some intent to take action and that is where the sales will come from. Understandably the CPC for Weight loss is ₹161.35 whereas for weight loss program is ₹230.77. Thus automatically your competition has revealed that “weight loss program” will garner more sales and has better commercial value than “weight loss”. Thus for SEO, optimize for higher value keywords.

Step 4: Reverse Engineering for competitor webpage

Reverse engineering is a smart way forward in SEO and PPC campaigns. Try reverse engineering a competitor webpage in the initial stages of your campaigns. Keyword Planner provides this functionality, however it is not incredibly helpful. Nevertheless, input a competitor URL and check out what are the competitor’s keywords. This can help you to plan your campaigns and SEO effectively.

Step 5: Ignore useless features

The “Ad group ideas feature” does not have any practical use as it gives disorganized groups which can be confusing. The Adwords campaigns needs to be super-organized in order to get the results that you want. Hence the keyword planner tool as a whole is not a very efficient organizing tool but can be used as a starting point. Some other features like negative keywords, options and filters are not very helpful for SEO and Adwords. All these features simply produce disorganized campaigns which can affect the performance level and quality scores.